rr8 active and Passive

Active and passive

Active sentences
In the following example, the verb is active
'

active and passive

.

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We use the passive to direct our listener's attention to the important part of ou r message. For i nstance, in the first exam ple of this section we do not need to know who delivers the letters, so all mention of the oostman is left out. The passive can be used when we do not know who carries out the action expressed by the verb, orwhen it is not important that we

The postman delivers hundreds of letters every day.

The subject ofan active sentence is also the person or thing that carries out the action. We use the active when the subject of the verb is the doer of the action. The active is used in most English speech and writing, because we usually want to inform our listener or our reader

should know. lt is sometimes much more important to know what has happened than who orwhat did it.
The moneywas hidden under the bed. The bookis being sent by express delivery. An elderly manwas run over while crossing the rood. Rogerhas been given his promotion. The

who or what carried out the action of the verb.

tle hid the money under the bed.
The car knocked over o Pedestrian. t'm sending the bookby express delivery'

patientwas operated on.

The passive allows us to select the Darts of a sentence to which we want to draw attention. lt can be used when we want to focus on:

Passive sentences
In the following example, the verb is in the passive. Thousands ofletters are delivered every day.

theagent, i.e. who brought the action about. We show the agent with by.
Thewindowwos brokenby some boys.
My b roth e r w a s giv e n extr 0 tuiti o n by
The
hi s tea ch er
.

The old man wos run over by a careless driver

The subject in a passive sentence is not the person or thing that does theaction oftheverb. lt isthe person orthing that is acted on bythe

patientwas operated onby

team oftop surgeons.

verb.
Theinjured manwashelped by a passer-by. The man was being questioned by the police. The patientwas operated on by a team offive surgeons. The passive is made with the appropriate form of be + the past participle of the main verb.

the instrument, i.e. what was used to make the action happen. We show the instrument with by ar with.
The sorting is done by machine The safe was blown
.

openwith dynamite . The old mon wos knocked overby a bus. I was showeredwith presents on my eighteenth birthday.